Tendrils: 170505

Hello and welcome to Tendrils! This week I’ve spotted finches feeding on these groundsel (Senecio vulgaris) weed seedheads, just outside the garden, and it’s nice to know they eat something other than birdseed.

It’s Naked Gardening Day tomorrow, but rest assured, Tendrils will remain fully clothed! Last week we learned about the unusual measures French wine makers were using to avoid frost damage; this week it’s English vineyards in trouble. Far safer, given the nippy weather, to celebrate Fascination of Plants Day, which is May 18th this year. If you’re a scientist, science communicator, educator or just someone who feels passionate about plants, you can join ‘Botany Live’ from 18th – 21st May (Thursday – Sunday) and live-stream a short peek into your (fully clothed) life.

And speaking of citizen science, AstroPlant is ESA’s citizen science project aiming to use amateur scientists to collect as much data as possible on crops that show potential for astronauts in space, such as spinach, lettuce, herbs and strawberries. It’s in its early stages at the moment, but it sounds like we may all get the chance to nurture plants for human spaceflight at some point in the future….

You may (or may not) now be relieved to hear that people eat carnivorous plants. (Now, I have trouble opening that link, because the BBC have chosen not to make it available to people in the UK. If you are similarly afflicted, search for a Web Proxy and read it via a third party in a different country, or use Google Translate, which does the same thing. Fight the power!) Hopefully it’s not the same carnivorous plants that are used as toilets by tree shrews. Or bats.